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Diane Arbus: MoMA Retrospective, Redux (1972)

A photographic image is a transformation of reality; when selected with consciousness and an intention beyond the recording of surface, it is inevitably a remaking of an event into the photographer’s own image, and thus an assumption of godhead. […]

Jerry Uelsmann (1934-2022): A Farewell

Issued at that particular historical moment ([in 1967], “Post-Visualization” virtually guaranteed that Jerry Uelsmann would find himself in the eye of a storm for years to come; not only did it declare its author’s intent to serve as a spokesperson for the approach described therein, but it implied his willingness to have his work treated as a litmus test for the theory’s validity, an example of its application in practice. […]

Scratch a Good American: Anti-Semitism in the USSR (1988)

“Scratch a good American,” says the Oriole,” “and you’ll find a good German.” Ari had just scratched a good American. […]

Herman LeRoy Emmet (1943-2021): A Farewell

Herman Emmet’s models, I know, are Agee-Evans and W. Eugene Smith, among others. This work emerges from that lineage, extends the thrust of those seminal efforts, and deserves to stand in their company. But it certainly is not of interest exclusively to those concerned with serious photography, who may well prove to be only a small segment of its audience. […]

Harry Callahan Interview 2 (1971)

I just don’t know what makes a picture, really — the thing that makes it is something unique, as far as I can understand. Just like one guy can write a sentence and it’s beautiful and another guy can write it and it’s dead. What that difference is, I don’t know. […]